Yes, those hapless refugees, immigrants, and bums can destroy a country just as bed bugs can destroy a billion-dollar hotel because nobody wants to come.

When a country is monolithic, it's easy to mobilize its citizens to defend it. When it's a quilt, it's a lot harder.

Many here volunteered to liberate Europe back then. I wouldn't bet on it today when Europe still can't figure out what Europe is. There is no way I would allow my son to go to France to make sure that France is free to keep turning brown and black. For that, France can ask Nigeria.

Germany is full commited to Nato and is meeting all its obligations, including several foreign missions (Iraq, Lithuania, Afghanistan).

I always thought that Germans are smart enough not to hook up with the US to be the cops and social workers in a s***hole like Afghanistan - a bottomless pit for dead soldiers and money, with no end in sight.

Read this: dw.com/en/germanys-long-hard-slog-in-afghanistan/a-42851883 and tell me that Germany has not lost its mind. I dare you.

Germany spends 1.24 percent of its GDP on defense and has promised to increase that figure to 1.5 percent by 2024

Which would be around 60bn €, which is more than enough for a well-functioning army.

Were tired of carrying dead weight, don't you Eurps get it??

You are carrying nobody, it is the Europeans who are currently fighting for the USA in Afghanistan, not vice versa. You contribute very little to European defence. Or am I just not seeing your aircraft carriers in the Baltic Sea?

Hey, who was the genius that set a withdrawal time table during a war?

The better question is, who was the genius who decided to invade Iraq before Afghanistan had been properly stabilized, thus diverting ressources that could have been used more efficiently? Thanks to that we are now fighting a de facto hopeless war, with no end in sight.

I have recently talked with a German Afghanistan veteran who got WIA and he told me some interesting things. Apparantly one of the biggest problems in Afghanistan is corruption, and related to this the complacency of those who participate in it. The Afghan army is in terrible shape, and has far fewer soldiers that it should be, because officers take the wages for non-existing soldiers. They were uninterested to do anything about even, no matter how often they were warned that this could lead to disaster. The veteran remembered remembered one particulary smug commander in Kundusz, who was more egregious than most. Then after 2014 and a Taliban offensive thibgs suddenly changed. The Afghans realized that they could not rely on Nato forever, and the same commander suddenly changed his tone. It was necessary to show the Afghans that they would have to face the Taliban alone, and get their act together.

Thanks to that we are now fighting a de facto hopeless war, with no end in sight.

100% correct. Which begs the question why is Germany still there acting like a brainless poodle of the US military machine?

I didn't read Article 5, but I am willing to bet a buck against a dime that it does not require assistance in discretionary adventures like the one in Afghanistan. Even under the American concept of "stand your ground' - a concept so abhorrent to the Euros - you can kill the aggressor at home in Florida, not chase him and kill him in Alaska a year later.

A future 9/11 can be hatched in any of the 200 countries. So, please, let's not mention that event as any justification to shoot Taliban in Afghanistan 18 years since.

Which begs the question why is Germany still there acting like a brainless poodle of the US military machine?

Germany is a small country with a gazillion sometimes hostile neighbours without any natural riches to speak off...we have to make the best of it. That is our brains and our scientific talents...we build goods the world want's to buy for lotsa money...that's our only chance of survival. Trump gives a ****, we must react!

If we don't play the brainless poodle to the US, we will have to for somebody else...I don't think the US will be happy if we change sides. It just wouldn't be good for both of us!

The fact is that Germany is not spending enough on defence as a percentage of GDP.There is no escaping that fact.The UK,Poland and even The tiny Baltic states put you to shame.And you should be ashamed,instead of trying to defend it with obfuscation.

I remember fondly most of Europe refusing to follow you in that Iraq quagmire (remember "freedom fries" and "bad old Europe vs good new Europe"?)..those who said "no" really got some stick by the Bushians...but that was the right decision as with hindsight the toppling of Saddam gave us ISIS, hundreds of european terror deaths and in the end the Syria war. It destabilized the whole region, not to mention in consequence many of the refugees now storming Europe.

But Afghanistan wasn't so clear cut, I remember the gov argumenting that it would be more of a peace-mission, as in building schools, training the afghan army and what not...but I suspect there was some peer pressure after sitting the Iraq war out...Some politicians had been probably keen on proving Germany's worth as a NATO member, who knows...

The E.U. was already in self destruct mode with no hopes of return before Trump even entered the picture.Lets blame it on obama & Crooked Hillary this time.I suggested here a long time ago to start teaching your children Chinese.

Biggest consumer market in the world...of course both would have it rather destroyed so they can do their trade negotiations better from a supreme position far above to one of the many small countries in the EU than having to work with the whole powerful union at once which is more than their equal!

The European Union's GDP was estimated to be €15.3 trillion (nominal) in 2017,[21] representing ~22% of global economy (nominal global GDP).[22]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_European_Union

There won't be any "self destruct" as it's members know very well what's good for them....Germany maybe could go alone, as it was a successful world trader before, if it wanted to, what it doesn't.

But do you really think Poland alone would had a chance in hell to get a favourable deal for its own all alone on the world markets???

Here you have the EU...and the hope that it goes away one day, even with one political crisis after the other, is just wishful thinking! A hope only those truly share which have vested economy interests to keep the rivals weak and hanged out to dry all by themselves.

Now tell me Johnny, are you one of those super rich business magnates?

The US doesn't need any trade deals except for the rare metals we don't have. Whatever we import we can make ourselves. The fact that we allowed the ruling class to send our manufacturing base out because it's cheaper is nothing short of treason as this made the whole country unsustainable and unable to defend itself lacking the high tech manufacturing plants. Instead we have Facebook and Amazon, both producing nothing. The US was able to make tanks quickly and in large numbers during WW2 because then the US was making trucks and cars quickly and in large numbers.

By the time the last car factory goes to China, we lose that option and China knows it. In that sense we are witnessing China disarming the US while the stupid Americans flock to Walmart and smile because there is a sale on Chinese flat panel TV's.

Isolationism is one of those propaganda dirty words - like xenophobia or racism. It is meant to end a discussion rather than advance it.

Trading is about spending money. If you are out of it, you stay home and watch TV. Is that "isolationism"?

Plus, "trading" a lie. We trade when we exchange like-kind goods. Onions for carrots is trading. Even onions for cars is trading. Onions for real estate is not. Onions for the Treasury Bills is not. Neither is onions for cash. Today, my wife and I went to buy food, including onions. When I put cash on the counter, was I trading or simply buying? We use the term 'trading' to make things look classier than buying or binge shopping while financially broke the way the US is already.

Bottom line: True trading, as opposed to spending money, is sustainable and, thus, can be done forever. And it never results in a trade deficit. What is going on is a scam perpetrated by ruling class and the rest of us be damned.

Nope, it's quite old! In the US it reaches back to Thomas Payne and the colonial days...

u-s-history.com/pages/h1601.html

We trade when we exchange like-kind goods.

We trade that what we have for that what we don't have...not every country is agrarian in nature and not every country is able to produce high tech.

A country which tries both and be "self sufficient" get's only the worst of both (and loses the contact with the developments very quickly, it falls behind in life quality and knowledge!

And yes, your shopping today was trading too. You earned your cash with selling your workforce. Someone paid you for doing things nobody else could. But instead of carrots you got paid with money so you could chose yourself to trade it for carrots or something else.

What a charmless life you would have if you could not import anything except metal :). No french wine, italian shoes japanese motorbikes, german cars, brazilian coffee, no cigars, no tea, god knows where you would get all your precious sugar from. What would you eat if your crops failed ?

This statement and your drivel about onions and carrots proves you are a Russian ! They did put up with no imports and also had a few years of near barter economy